About 65 foreigners have over the past two years been offered naturalization based on their expertise or specialized skill sets as a result of amendments to the Nationality Act (國籍法), the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
In 2016, the act was amended to grant those with distinctive contributions to Taiwan or who possess high-end knowledge in science, economics, education, culture and the arts, sports or other areas expedited naturalization without the need to renounce their original nationality.
The government has this year approved 52 naturalization applications, four times more than last year, Department of Household Registration Deputy Director Chen Hsin-wei (鄭信偉) said.
Of those naturalized, 32 were accepted under the rubric of education, of which 29 were university professors, Cheng said, adding that 11 held specialized knowledge in economics, eight in arts and culture, seven in science and technology, five in medicine and one each in the fields of sports and human rights.
Most of the people naturalized over the past two years were US citizens, while Malaysian citizens came in second, Cheng said, adding that the others came from all over the world, including South Africa, New Zealand and Finland.
One of the six applications the ministry approved on Wednesday last week was submitted by an expert in financial insurance, while another has studied Baroque music for years and has served as concertmaster in many European orchestras, Cheng said.
The ministry said that it has streamlined the naturalization process to attract more highly trained professionals to apply.
For example, instead of requiring an applicant to request a recommendation letter from the competent authority in the central government, the ministry would send the request instead, it said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching